Cytogenetic Analysis of an SD Chromosome from a Natural Population of DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

The discovery and the cytogenetic characterization of a new SD (Segregation Distorter) chromosome 2 from a natural population in Ranna (Sicily, Italy), SD(Ra), are reported. The main features of this chromosome are as follows: (a) it contains an Sd(Ra) gene with a moderate degree of segregation distortion (k = 0.72), (b) a recessive female sterile gene, fs(2)(TLM), responsible for modifications of the morphology and structure of the tests and ovaries is located at 89.7, (c) SD(Ra)/SD(Ra) males and females are viable but sterile, the females due to homozygosis of fs(2)(TLM) and the males because of homozygosis of a region containing the Sd locus, and (d) SDi/SDj combinations are fertile, thus suggesting that the different Sd factors found in natural populations constitute a multiple allelic series.-These data may indicate that each population containing SD chromosomes has evolved its own genetic architecture for the complex SD system, with specific modifiers and perhaps different Sd genes. The possibility of reconstructing the evolutionary pattern of the SD(Ra) chromosome in the natural Ranna population after the model of Charlesworth and Hartl (1978) and Crow (1979) is considered.